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Lawsuit resumes in long-running same-sex custody case

WILSON RING, Associated Press
Published 4:01 a.m. ET March 22, 2017

In this Jan. 22, 2010, file photo, Janet Jenkins is sworn in as a witness in Rutland Family Court. Vermont U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III on Monday, March 20, 2017, ruled that a lawsuit filed by Jenkins, whose former civil union partner fled the country with their child rather than share custody, is being allowed to proceed because one of the defendants is set to be sentenced in a separate criminal case.(Photo11: Vyto Starinskas/The Rutland Herald via AP, File)

MONTPELIER - A lawsuit filed by a woman whose former civil union partner fled the country with their child rather than share custody is being allowed to proceed because one of the defendants is set to be sentenced in a separate criminal case, a judge has ruled.

In his decision this week, Vermont U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III expanded the lawsuit filed by Janet Jenkins to include a number of organizations and people alleged to have been involved in the flight from Virginia of her former partner Lisa Miller and their daughter.

The judge said that evidence presented during the September criminal trial of Virginia businessman Philip Zodhiates provided new grounds to include those organizations and people who had been dismissed from the civil case.

The lawsuit, filed shortly after the 2012 conviction of Mennonite pastor Kenneth Miller on criminal charges of helping Lisa Miller and her daughter flee, had been suspended during the separate case against Zodhiates, who also is a defendant in the civil case.

Kenneth Miller of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, is no relation to Lisa Miller. His attorneys argued at his trial that custody hadn’t been transferred to Jenkins when he helped Lisa Miller and her daughter flee so no crime could have been committed. But he said after he was convicted he was willing to accept the consequences of his actions.

Zodhiates, of Waynesboro, Virginia, was accused of helping Lisa Miller and her daughter, Isabella Miller-Jenkins, cross into Canada near Buffalo, New York, in September 2009. Miller and Isabella, now 14, flew to Nicaragua, where they are believed to be living. Zodhiates was convicted in September of international parental kidnapping and conspiracy.

Zodhiates, whose Vermont attorney in the civil case did not return a call and an email seeking comment, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Buffalo on Wednesday, clearing the way for the resumption of the civil case, which seeks unspecified damages.

“She wants to find out what happened to her daughter,” Star said Tuesday.

In this Sept. 22, 2016, file photo, Virginia businessman Philip Zodhiates leaves U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was on trial for international parental kidnapping and conspiracy. Zodhiates was convicted of the charges on Sept. 29, 2016, after prosecutors say he helped a mother move her daughter out of the country and away from her ex-partner. Vermont U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III on Monday, March 20, 2017, ruled that a lawsuit filed by Janet Jenkins, whose former civil union partner fled the country with their child rather than share custody, is being allowed to proceed because Zodhiates is set to be sentenced in a separate criminal case.(Photo11: AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson, File)

Jenkins and Miller entered into a civil union in Vermont shortly after the state became the first to legally recognize same-sex relationships in 2000. Miller bore the child, who was conceived through artificial insemination, and both acted as parents.

The two later split up, and Miller, who moved to Virginia, had primary custody of Isabella, with Jenkins given visitation rights. Miller defied court orders that she grant visitation and fled when it became apparent the court would transfer custody of Isabella to Jenkins.

The civil case named as one of the defendants the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which helped provide legal representation for Miller during her yearslong legal fight. Liberty Counsel CEO Mat Staver said neither he nor anyone else from his organization involved in Miller’s case knew of her plans to flee.

Liberty University, which is separate from the counsel, also was added to the lawsuit because one of its professors was accused of encouraging Miller to commit civil disobedience rather than comply with Vermont family court rulings. Liberty University counsel David Corry said the university was surprised to learn it had been brought back into the case and was “mounting a defense to the allegations.”